The Man in the White suit
by Terrance M
Summary: A CEDA agents perspective on surviving the outbreak. Got some thrills, some spills, and the eventual meetup with some well known survivors. Please R&R! Chapter 2 Part 2 now up!
1. The Beginning

NOTE: I reference characters from Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. All other characters/ locations are my ideas and may not be used.

All I could hear was static from my radio and I reached up to try and fix it, but met the heavy white plastic and rubber of the Level A1 HAZMAT suit. The static cleared when my partner clicked his radio on, "vehicle is clear and occupants show no signs of infection" as he waved the loaded vehicle onto the bridge while off to the side a woman in a pink shirt was standing in front of a camera about fifty feet behind the barricade reporting the news. Turning around, I headed to the next vehicle in the line, and saw that it was loaded with baggage and possessions. I peered into the driver side window and asked the apprehensive driver to roll it down. Upon which, I asked him for his drivers license which he cautiously handed over. After inspecting it, I scanned it into my wrist computer. It popped up that he was recently treated for flu like symptoms a week before evacuations started.

Motioning over two more agents, I asked him to step out of the vehicle along with everyone else so I could ask them a few questions. He unlocked the door and stepped out, along with his wife and two kids. "Sir, you were treated for flu like symptoms before evacuations started. Have you come into contact with anyone exhibiting symptoms of green flu?" He fidgeted in his pockets "I was at work when one of my co-workers fell ill to the green flu and was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. I was in the cubicle next to him and I had to clean his desk and such after he left. Is that a bad thing?" "Sir, we're going to have to escort you and your family to be cleared for evac. We can't take any chances" As I handed his license over to him and motioned everyone to step over to a sealed white tent where medical personnel would examine every occupant of the vehicle thoroughly, noticing his daughter had a smear of blood along her ear and was looking around erratically.

"Move that car to the side so the evacuees can move through" I ordered a green suited man who climbed into the car and pulled it off the crowded roadway next to a green and white CEDA trailer and returned to work. While I was in the process of inspecting the occupants of another vehicle one of the men inside the white tent stumbled out with blood across his white suit and fell to the ground. "Hey!" I yelled "you alright!" He jerked his head up and I could see the plexiglass face cover was broken and his eye had been gouged out. I was about to run up and help him when another occupant from the tent emerged, it was the little girl that belonged to the family, she was grasping in her hand a finger that had been torn off of somebody. Immediately, my brain went into action and I jumped over the car I was inspecting and leaned into the control booth of the bridge, hitting a red button on the side of one panel. Alarms began blaring, warning lights lit up, and the heavy steel gates were slowly locking into place. Then I drew my firearm from it's holster and began moving people away from the tent "MOVE, GET BACK...GET BACK!" I was screaming, the hermetically sealed suit muffling it significantly. The news people oblivious to the fact, I jumped over the barrier "Ma'am, you have to move, you too...turn that camera off; let's go..NOW". Dragging them behind a Humvee as several military personnel began to surround the now growing number of moaning, bleeding victims.

"Ma'am, this is not a good time to continue your news broadcast we need to get you somewhere safe and away from the infected" She scoffed " It's my job and I'm going to make this news story nationwide, no doubt about that." Her cameraman was frantic "Rochelle, we should go, the van is around the corner, let's go!" She nodded and gave a wave to me "see you around stranger" before jumping up and running down the street, dodging through vehicles as I returned to moving people away from the checkpoint. A few people locked themselves in their cars and refused to leave, I tried my best to get them out but had to abandon them when I heard "FALL BACK, IT'S OUT OF CONTROL" from the radio in my suit. Ushering the less stubborn out of their cars or have them back up and escape if they could get their vehicles moved. As I was helping an elderly woman out of her car, one civilian who was being attacked had his car in reverse and backed up into her car almost killing the both of us, fortunately I got her out in the nick of time and onto an armored transport truck loaded with military personnel pulling out.

I watched as she smiled and gave me a wave, watching the heavy door lock into place and pressurized air escape from the vents on top. My heroic stupor shattered when I heard a click from my radio and a "Hrrrrrnnnnnggghhhh"come from it. Obviously one of the former CEDA agents managed to click his radio on, I was about to help a family of six out of their vehicle when I was hit from the side, knocking me into the back of a parked van. When I awoke there was silence, nobody around and no sounds of the infected. Climbing up the side of the van I checked my suit for any tears or rips while regaining my cognition. When I finally had a firm grasp on my movements, I searched around for one of the army vehicles. Finding a Humvee, I searched around inside the cab, then searched around in the trunk. Finding an M-4 Assault rifle and a bullet proof vest, I smiled as I situated it over the heavy plastic and rubber, tightening it down and loaded up as much ammunition as I could carry. Checking to make sure the weapon was loaded and the safety was off, I made my way through the abandoned cars towards the closed checkpoint.

Being jumpy was detrimental to my stealth abilities, as I didn't want to alert any nearby infected to my location, but starting at every sudden movement and sound didn't help. When I finally made my way to the tent, the girl, the CEDA agent that I saw, and a few other bodies were laying on the ground clearly put down by the military before the spread became too great. I couldn't see any other infectees in the area, so they had clearly wandered off into the surrounding area. Cautiously stepping up to the blood coated tent, I peeked inside to a scene of pure carnage. The two nurses who were also in suits were laying in the corner, their suits torn and their insides strewn about, the doctor who was with them was nowhere to be found, but his hand minus three fingers was on the laptop next to the table. The father and mother were dead, their throats ripped out and blood pooling slowly under the tables on which they lay. The little boy was missing, probably torn apart or infected, and I wasn't about to stick around to find out.

Stepping out of the tent, I scanned the surrounding area through the sight of my rifle, checking all the vehicles slowly while making my way from tent to tent, finding a few grenades, a flashlight, and several medkits which I took and added them to my arsenal. My next job was to find out what in the hell I was going to do to get out of there, I knew there were a few evac sites around the city several miles away, and after a few minutes of deciding what to do, the most logical reason was to meet up with other CEDA stations still operational.

Clicking on my radio, I spoke into the microphone "Calling all CEDA stations, this is Agent #55293 requesting information related to outbreak and further orders, over" I waited a minute and repeated the message, receiving only static in response. Winding my way back to the Humvee, I opened the door and got in, scanning my surroundings once more before turning on the engine, it roared to life before winding down to a soft purr, looking around to make sure nothing had noticed me and was on my tail, I turned the vehicle around and began my way into the city toward Evac Station Bravo.

Turning onto the abandoned highway I gunned it up to eighty, running down a few infected highway patrol officers along the way. It wasn't until the truck ran out of gas several hours later that I had to worry about the now gathering crowd of infected individuals slowly coming out of the proverbial woodwork. Grabbing my supplies and my weaponry, I began the meticulous job of running in, around, and over crashed and abandoned cars. Keeping pace so that I could keep ahead of the shambling dead corpses that were moaning their way after me. Fortunately for me, the Humvee ran out of gas right on the outskirts of Bainbridge, Wisconsin. Evac Station Bravo was in the middle of the next town over, located at a little private airport where the army was grouping up to take them to a safe zone in Louisiana.

Stepping onto the hood of a Chevy that had met the wrong end of a tractor trailer, I looked down just in time to see a man with half his face chopped off try to bite through the heavy rubber of my combat boots. Kicking it in the face, I strained to reach the top rung of the tanker trucks trailer. Looking back quickly to assess the time I had before I became zombie chow, I decided to try once more, hooking my fingers around the rung, I desperately clung and using my very low upper body strength; tried to pull myself up onto the top. Tossing my weapon onto the walkway, I kicked my legs in a futile attempt at leverage when my foot caught one of the infected in the head, pushing me up and allowing one of my boots to contact a rung. Swinging myself up, I looked at the little mass of bodies clawing at the metal. Moaning and gnashing their teeth at me, waving at them and chuckling; I bid my farewell and quickly skirted the top of the tanker truck.

My next problem lay ahead. In front of the truck were several car crashes, the vehicles involved were on fire. Climbing down behind the cab I peeked out and scanned the highway, there were a few zombies milling about and one large one I had been briefed about. They called it a boomer, when disturbed it exploded in a mass of guts and bile that was extremely corrosive and blinded anyone that came in contact with it. The skin of this big fella was covered in boils, oozing pus and blood as it waddled around, moaning and attempting to find a destination as it bumped into an infected couple, knocking them over. Another one struck a fist into the fat flabby body of this "boomer" and the sudden reaction making it explode, it's head popping off and shooting over the freeway like a cork from a champagne bottle and it's guts spraying the corrosive fluid everywhere within a five meter radius.


	2. The Town

Chuckling, I stepped out of the shadowed shelter of the truck cab, right into a puddle of what was formerly a truck driver. Making sure nothing else was in the way of my boots and nothing would alert the shambling idiots ahead of me, I began to zig-zag through the mass of cars. Kneeling down next to a burned out Cadillac I peeked up to look around again, there were only three zombies milling around at the end of the roadway and I could wait it out but it was getting dark in about three hours and I'd need to find shelter or risk getting into a situation that I couldn't get out of alive.

Slowly situating the rifle on my shoulders, I took aim on the nearest zombie and squeezed the trigger; smiling with satisfaction as it's head cracked wide open. The other two looked around to try and figure out where the sound came from and I took aim again and unloaded two more rounds. Staying still to listen for any other signs of movement in case nearby flesh eaters decided to come for a nibble on yours truly. With only silence stopping me, I cautiously stepped out from my little bunker of cars and made a run towards the nearest building. It was a WAL*MART that was a quick jump into the ravine, then a fast jaunt into the parking lot, followed by some dodging of zombies as they noticed me and began to give chase. I thought I could outrun them but those dreams were shattered when a roar hit my ears from my right. Swinging my head around, what came into my visor was horrible; it was another special infected that I had been briefed on called a "tank." It looked like a giant mutated human, it's arms were huge and the muscles almost crushed the tiny head in the middle. Slamming it's fists into the ground, it roared as it began to charge at me, drawing my weapon up, I unloaded several bursts of fire into it's rippling muscles, which did nothing to slow it down any. Slinging the weapon onto my back once more I took off into the store, jumping over a check stand and with my heart pumping turned into the sports aisle, looking for those little plastic flaps that would lead to the back room and possibly to a makeshift safe room.

The ground began shaking as the tank crashed through the store, searching for me and by the time it did I was in a little room behind a good two inches of solid steel and a little one way view port. Nervously, I made sure the room was clear, the lights were off, and everything was quiet. The only sounds now were the groans of frustration outside, and the thumping of my heart in my ears. Eventually the tank smacked a few of the infected around, smearing them onto the ceiling, walls, and floor before thumping out of the truck bay. After an hour, I made my way out of the room and cleared the storage bay and then went on the hunt for supplies I'll need for the night. Gathering food, water, duct tape, plastic sheeting, and bleach, then gathered ammunition and clips for my weapons. Storing them on the desk, I set up the sheeting on the doorway, locking and barring it before taping around the edges so it was a perfect seal. Then spraying a mix of bleach and water on my boots and rubber gloves before taking them off, setting them aside to dry. Then closing off the oxygen valve to conserve air while I unbuckled it with my other hand. Setting the whole rig on the ground next to the boots. Then off came the suit itself duct taping the zipper and air hose connectors so that water didn't seep in, placing it in a large washbasin to sanitize overnight.

Then set about the task of checking myself for cuts, scrapes and washing myself off; using a damp towel to minimize body odor and keep bacteria down and then made a nice sandwich of spam and bread for dinner. Laying under the desk with my sidearm next to me, I fell into a nice sleep only little tidbits of what had happened in the past 24 hours seeping into my dreams. When I awoke, plastic filtered light was shining through the window of the doorway and I had grasped the handgun so tightly that it left the imprint of "Smith and Wesson" on my palm. Rolling out from under the desk with a groan not unlike the infectees roaming about somewhere in the store, I checked my boots, gloves and suit to ensure that they were ship shape before having a breakfast of crackers and peanut butter. Checking all my weapons, I stepped into my suit and zipping it up before attaching the vest, oxygen tank, and ammunition pouches, outer gloves, and boots once more. Rummaging through the desk and finding a large red marker, I wrote on the wall "6/9/10- CEDA agent # 55293. Checkpoint Alpha at sherryville bridge is GONE. STAY AWAY at all costs, contact me on radio frequency 8803.24 kHz Good luck." then tore down the plastic sheeting and opened the door.

Upon first inspection of the cargo area, it seemed as if everything was in order and as I walked out there were a few fresh corpses on the floor in pools of blood. I don't remember shooting anything other than that tank as I came charging in. "Right where I left you" I said to the open containers of ammunition "But not where I left you" as I poked a fresh body in the side with the barrel of the M-4. Someone must have been in the store during the night and looted the place, most of the guns were gone, and half of the canned foods were too, if they were still around maybe they'll see my message and contact me. Leisurely strolling through the store, I was occupied with the electronics department when an inhuman screech echoed through the cavernous expanse of the store. Deciding that shit was about to get real, I grabbed my stuff and high tailed it out. When I reached the entrance where was a greeter, sitting in the chair like he had done in life, but clasping a severed arm and waving it around. Deciding that I didn't want his special greeting, I planted a round in the back of his skull and continued my fast paced exit out of the building and into the parking lot. Scanning around for the tank, and making sure I had enough space to fire, should any zombies attempt a sample of me, I began my jog through the parking lot once more. Making sure each step was planted firmly and my pace was strong; I was almost to the end of the lot when a woman in her mid twenties stopped about fifteen feet ahead of me. "HEY, You alright!" I yelled out, and when I did; she turned to me and opened her mouth in a hissing screech. Raising my rifle, I clicked off the safety in time to fire three rounds into her torso and only managing to slow her down. Unloading another half clip into her, I managed to turn her midsection into a puddle of red jell-o. As she tried in vain to crawl towards me, I scanned the parking lot again and sure enough; she had brought along a few pals to join the party. My legs where having no part of this and in one swift move, they brought me over a pickup truck, up the hill out of the parking lot, and onto a suburban road. Jumping over a fence and into someones backyard, I raised my rifle and stepped up to the side of the house, peering around the corner. There was a nice swimming pool with a floating toy, several tables set up, some nice lawn chairs, and a troop of undead milling around a birthday cake that read "Happy Birthday Claire". Looking for an alternate route, my eyes spotted it about ten feet away in the form of a large concrete wall bordering the garden. Trying my best to be quiet, I failed miserably when I stepped on a squeaky dog toy and one of the little undead tikes turned her bloody eye sockets in my direction and mumbled an incoherent noise that only succeeded in alerting the rest of them. Reaching around to one of my side pockets on the vest, I pulled out a grenade, yanked the pin, and tossed it. Crouching low as it went off to avoid the blood, body parts, and cake that flew everywhere, I looked back and popped a few rounds into the ones still standing. Then made my way hastily onto the wall and hopped over it, landing in a little alleyway and crouched behind a dumpster, listening for any signs of zombies.


	3. The Town Part 2

Finding none, I peered from behind the dumpster towards the street, parallel to my position. Finally calming my nerves, I stepped out and kept out of puddles and dry leaves, anything that could give me away should I meet more opposition to me staying alive. When I reached the sidewalk I turned left and noticed a woman in a red sweatshirt running down the street carrying a shotgun and followed loosely by a man wearing a military beret and military fatigues. Trying to figure out what to do, I decided the best course of action was to find them and team up, getting them to evac station bravo was probably a good idea as well. Picking up my pace, I jumped over the hood of a Camaro and onto the side of the street they were running on; watching as they disappeared down an alleyway next to the barbershop.I was about ten feet away when the man with the beret stepped back out into the street firing wildly, followed by the woman and another taller man wearing a leather vest and growing a thick beard as they were all shooting into the alleyway.I stepped up and looked right, swinging my weapon up and squeezed the trigger, unloading a full clip into the small horde of oncoming infected. After the last one gurgled to death, the leather vest turned to me "Who the hell are you?" he stated with a gruff demeanor "are you with the army, or are you with CEDA?" "I'm with CEDA, I'm part of the Disease Emergency Assessment Division" I said slowly, reloading another magazine into the weapon. "D.E.A.D huh? kinda spells out our fate perfectly" leather vest said sharply; to which the woman spoke up "Sorry about him, my name is Zoey, this here is Francis, Bill, and Louis should be around here somewhere. Now who might you be, Mr. White suit?"

I shuffled and looked around "My name is not important, just refer to me as Mr. White suit for the time being; alright?" Zoey smiled and said nothing, just nodding and turning around to face the man named Francis and the scruffy veteran named Bill. "Okay, we hole up and wait for Louis to return, and then we'll figure out where to go from there. There's a gun store just down the road here. White suit, would you mind checking it out?" I smirked"Sounds like a plan, let me scout ahead first and I'll notify you guys by a red smoke grenade. If anything goes wrong, just head for the gunshots to help me out"Without waiting for an answer, I took off at a light jog and headed for the edge of the red brick I got there, I crouched to peer around the corner; there was a mass of infected aimlessly wandering around an overrun barricade. To my left was another street leading to the center of town, and directly across the street in front of me was the gun store. From what I'd been briefed on, infected weren't too smart when it came to identifying humans and infected at long distance so I thought I'd try something I saw in a movie once. Limbering up and relaxing, I began walking out into the street and away from the cover of the building, letting the M-4 hang from it's strap on my shoulder and dragging my boots as if they were made of lead. Some infected looked at me but didn't come tearing at me like a rabid dog, they just returned to their aimless shuffling. After reaching the other side of the road, I kept up the facade until I was outside the little green bricked building with a sign that read "H&Q Gun Shop". Opening the door, I slung my weapon around and brought it up, turning on the flashlight; and with a hesitant breath, stepped inside. The racks were a mess, but all the gear, weapons, and most of the ammunition were in great shape. Looking behind the counters, inside the dressing rooms, bathrooms, backrooms, and upstairs until I was satisfied that the building was clear.

Upon satisfaction, I opened the door and reached into my vest pocket to pull out a smoke grenade. Pulling the pin, letting the handle fly, and chucking it into the bed of a pickup truck. All I had to do now was wait. While I was waiting, I took a tour of the store and it's facilities. Stopping by a large selection of military weapons, I found an M-4 that was silenced and had a wider chamber. Perfect for silent operations when there were too many zombies to count. Checking to ensure that it was clean, oiled, and ready for action, I unloaded my current one and slid the clip into the new one. Grabbing some additional ammunition and filled up a side pouch that would clip to the tactical vest and hang closely to my body to minimize noise while moving. I wouldn't want to have ammunition clanging against the oxygen tank that was strapped to my back and having the problem of clanking around when I was trying to be sneaky.

Looking around more, I found a large oxygen tank that probably belonged to the owner, seeing as it was attached to a breathing mask. With a little adjustment, I had a hose hooked up to my oxygen tank to fill it up, watching as the little needle went from red all the way up to green in less than fifteen minutes. Shutting off the valve, I went upstairs to scout out possible sniping positions, finding a roof hatch, I creaked it open and stepped up onto the tar covered roof. It had a whole view of the skyline, the surrounding neighborhoods, and the town center. In the distance I could see helicopters moving away from the city, and watched as one large building exploded in a huge fireball. It would have been beautiful had it not been followed by a large thundering roar and gunfire. Looking down, I saw the survivors running as fast as they could towards my position. Followed very closely by another tank, or the very same tank that had tried to get me, either way it was a terrible sight. Again, I switched into action mode; jumping through the roof hatch and sliding down the ladder, I scrambled to find a high powered rifle among the racks of weaponry. With shaking hands I grabbed a 30-30 and loaded a round into the chamber and headed for the roof once more. Once I had scrambled up the ladder and positioned the rifle against the siding of the roof, the tank had one of the survivors and was crushing him against one big meaty fist. Sighting the scope on his tiny head, I unloaded a round into his skull and succeeded in blowing away the top half of his head.

The tank slowly stopped beating Francis into the ground and rolled over, twitching and jerking in sporadic movments as it's diseased brain relayed the information that it was dead. Francis stood up, shook everything off and hobbled with the rest of them into the gunshop, locking the door as a large mass of infected came to investigate the gunshots and the twitching corpse of the tank.


End file.
